Game 4: The day after

I had to make a decision today. Take care of some personal stuff I’d been neglecting before going to Washington tomorrow … or go to the practice facility to hear all the cliches about winning one game, taking a shift at a time, etc.

And after sifting through some of the stuff, I made the right call by not going.

I must say, also, that despite a couple of real jackwagons who have no perspective and no courage, and who decided to chime in after Game 86, you guys were pretty cool in the earlier thread. Very hurt, very disappointed, some anger, etc. But not much of the finger-pointing, fire-this-guy, trade-that-guy stuff. In fact, some really get the big picture with this club.

And I’ll repeat what I said in the wee hours of the morning … I will be the least-surprised person on here if there’s a Game 6 Monday night.

447 Comments

As much as it hurt to lose last night, we still need to remember it isn’t about this year. There will be only one team happy in June- a SC winner. And the Rangers are still far away from being that team. But you can not deny that our young players and even rookies are getting a great experience. McD and Sauer are looking more and more solid, and are learning how to rebound after they make mistakes. Stepan has gotten better as this series progressed, AA continues to show that he could be trusted defensively against most of the elite players. And because of that I think this team is closer to competing at high level than most of us projected before the playoffs. If they can keep their core and add one more solid offensive threat in addition to Gaborik next year, MDZ keeps improving, we could be in a pretty good shape next year. Cap winners? Perhaps not. But we certainly won’t have to wait until the last game to make the playoffs. And after that, who knows?

Having said that, Caps will have to show that they can close the series. And I can’t wait to see what the Rangers mindset will be Saturday. Knowing this team, I’m sure they will not go without a fight.

I agree with Morning that Hank has to go. He is a good goalie but IMO there are some cracks in his armor that prevent him from being a great goalie. One of them is his inability to hold on to the puck and control the rebounds. I know he made 49 saves last night but i would argue that 15-20 of them was due to his inability to hold on to the puck. While watching the game last night I kept pointing out each time a simple shot bounced of Hank and landed in the slot where a ranger defenseman had to get it away under pressure or a Caps player would have a chance for a rebound. At the same time I kept pointing out how the Caps goaltender would hold on to the puck to prevent the rebound opportunities. Now I know with our team more face-offs in the defensive zone can get a little scary due to the teams sometimes inability to win a face-off but Ill take that over Hank facing 53 shots in a game.

I got hired today! Start May 2nd! Been keeping contact with a past client for the last year and hip hip Jorge! Going back to school to finish the last several classes for my bachelor’s too! Things are looking positive!

trading henrik would be insanity. this team is 2 good forwards away from competing for the cup. that is it…..

they will have 1 new d and svae or redistribute the mccabe $. they remove frolov from the books. see about drury.

they have 4 good d men and dz, possible gilroy, valetenko and others can or may become the 4th line. maybe mdz comes back and the ysign gilroy at a good number and they split up mcdonagh and sauer and agai nthere d is loaded defensively and they need gilroy and mdz to add offense.

on the forwards they are short but really how short? cally, dubi, aa, stepan, gaborik, prust, to start are ok. if they added 2 20 goal scorers all of a sudden they have 7 good forwards not counting what they do with Boyle, fedetenko, prospal, etc.

you add parise and cally to this team and I stand by my statement they can compete with anyone in the east for the title…

you have gabby, parise, and prospal
\dubi, cally, and aa
stepan boyle and prust and add fedetenko and others…

Stuart- you can forget about Parise. Lou will clear enough space before he becomes an RFA in order not to worry about an OS. Prospal is likely to retire. He is being paid $1.66M by Tampa through 2014-2015.

ilb, ill try to find time tonight to go home and watch the replay of the game and count how many shots were due to rebounds he should have held on to. But during the game on Saturday watch closely and tell me if I am wrong. Again I am not saying that Hank is a horrible goalie. I think he is a good goalie, at times a very very good goalie but not great. The first Caps goal is an example. That is a save he has to make. Any hockey player or fan knows that if you give up a goal in the first couple of minutes in a period to a team it does not matter how many goals they are down by it gives that team life. I hate to say it but “beat your wife” Marty from across the river would have had that in his prime ( I think we can all agree that Hank is in his prime now). So would have that goalie from the igloo and prob even the baby sabers tender.

Who wasn’t playing nice and if people are entitled to opinions, why should mine be any different?

I’m not a masochist and I understand that the idea is to win. Being in my late 20’s, I realize we havent been the strongest franchise in recent years. I’ll even agree that our ownership/management has been damn near terrible.

That being said, if I wanted to be surrounded by a bunch of band-wagoners (time to trade Hank, seriously?!) I’d start rooting for the Penguins or Yankees (no disrespect to their fans, just pointing out that not all fans are created equal).

I stand by what I wrote earlier: This Rangers team restored my faith. This Ranger team convinced me that they are proud to wear the Blue Jersey. To anyone saying trade our perennial best player because he cant be great, I challenge your fandom. Yup. I challenge your fandom.

Dudley,
I used to comment on this blog under the name yan. I have been following this blog prior to Carp taking over. If you can go back and look at some of my older posts I am 100% positive you will see this is not the first time I ever doubted Hank.

Simply put, this team would be still looking for that first elusive playoff appearance since 1997 if it wasn’t for Hank. And, therefore, we would not be able to rebuild the way we are now, if it wasn’t for him. Think about it.

Let me be the 1st to say how proud I am of this team. They don’t quit , & I don’t see them quitting on Saturday ! They will not go gently into that dark night. I had to take a break from reading all cooke being tossed here today. Ilb is right LOOK at the BIG picture. That means beyond this year

Call me negative or a pessimist, thats fine, but I just don’t see this team being a true cup contender with Sather running the show. I really hope I am proved wrong, though, but it’s impossible to root for this guy whose really done nothing for this franchise since he was hired in 2000.
I do look at the big picture, and this team is in really good shape on defense, and I would keep Gilroy too. He’s young, fits in with this team, and they need some defenseman who can carry the puck from red line to red line and create scoring chances. Hopefully, he’ll grow and be a mainstay on the PP for years to come. McCabe needs to be gone. He looks slow, and old, and I can’t stand when he skates up the ice on the PP, looking confused and immobile.
As fas as the offense goes, I wouldn’t give up on Gaborik just yet. I know he’s had an awful year but he is really their only “true” goal scorer, and if you trade him, you’re not getting back a top goal scorer in return.
Besides Gaborik, Cali, Dubi, Stepan, Anisimov, Prust, Boyle, and Fed look good IMO, but only if you have Prust, Boyle, and Fed as their 4th line, which they should be, gritty and hard working.
IMO, they need 2 front end forwards to join Gaborik, and a good 2nd liner to play with Cali and Dubi. How they go about this through trades, the draft, and free agency all comes back to Sather, though, and I hope whoever is running this team can accomplish this before LQ gets to old:)

As far as the present and game 6, nothing surprises me anymore in sports, so a Rangers victory won’t be a shock, but I don’t expect the Rangers to win in that building after game 5.

I am a die hard fan. I have believed in this team from the start of the season. The way hard work they put in on a nightly basis makes me confident that they will only get better as they go along. You can challenge my fandom all you want but I just dont fully trust Hank. Now granted Hank is not the reason we are down 3-1 but im not complaining just because of 1 game or 1 series. My complaints with him started during his second year.

Is he an upgrade over the Dunhams, the Gigiares, the Weeks, yes but is he as great as we make him out to be? In my opinion no but I would love for him to prove me wrong.

Comment once a year – ok, you are comparing the shots that annoywirth faced with those that Hank had to save and you wonder why the craps goalie didn’t allow rebounds??? You cannot be serious. The rangers shots for the most part were outside the circles. He had no screens, his own dmen put of range for bank shots, and the ranger shooters are hardly heavy shooters save mccabe. Do you know the difference between a heavy shot and those the ranger players put up? I would argue that many of the times that annoywirth stopped play, he was doing his team a dis-service. Stopping play when no ranger was in sight wasn’t smart hockey. Hank is facing some of the best skilled forwards in the game. His mates, while blocking many shots, also cause more pinball plays than you see at an arcade. Plus the bang bang nature of the caps offense is pure hell for a goalie. To compare what each goalie is facing is ridiculous.

Thanks Carp! (even if you weren’t referring to me in any way) We love this team and really appreciate all you do to get us inside info and really great reviews and really great wrap-ups, pre-games, post-games and beard contests (among other things).

Last night did hurt. A lot. A ton actually. My really good friends is a real Caps fan and he txted me this morning to see if I was ok. No trash talk. Just a concerned friend. That’s how bad it was. But this team has a really bright future and a lot of home grown talent.

Remember – people said the Yankees had to get younger to win – and they did and they suffered a lot (for the Yankees) by missing the playoffs playing their youngsters and in 2009 it all paid off. I know you guys hate Yankees analogies but I think the message is clear – ride this out (and remember Round 1 is far from over as is the playoffs!) and we will be rewarded by a great and lovable team.

lets not fire anyone here.
the bottom line is when you have 2 overtime games in a series and you are always counterpunching and waiting for a chance or a bounce its hard to win. 80-85% of the ot in both games are played in our end. its about puck possesion and we never have it hence the reason we lead block shots every year.

we are nowhere without hank however he is a very good goalie not a great goalie. remember hes lost 5 pt games in a row. i love hank and hes our rock so this nonsense about moving him is idiotic.

gaborik hes lost and i wonder if he will be the new whipping boy for years to come. i dont think he could handle this stage but we are stuck with him and need more skill.

that being said i am on the ledge

what is worse

ron francis goal from center ice rangers up 2-1 on pens in series and lose game 4

The worst has got to be when Drury scored with 7.7 seconds left….only becuase I really felt like that team would have been able to do some damage that year. We had a good shot and Drury ruined it all!!! This year, even if we won this series, i wouldn’t see the rangers getting that far but still hurts like hell!!

simple. you don’t want to be a whipping boy, then don’t blow a game that would have turned the series around. of all the bad goals so far this playoff season for the 16 teams, that Buttchin blunder was BY FAR the worst. most inexcusable, and most avoidable.

game 82 last year was another blow….given that jody shelly’s goal stood up till ot and the shootout when considering the ice was tilted virtually the entire game…did anyone else think Boucher beats hank in a SO?…i sure didnt….

Did anyone thingkthat Darren Pang’s comments during the game were very one-sided in his compliments of the Capitals? I don’t think he noticed that the Rangers exsisted until the first OT, just my opinion

tgrn – WW’s weak effort at securing the icing late in the 3rd or the first OT….lazyiness is far worse than hustle and effort….say what you will about gabby’s play…he was hustling his butt off…………pure luck it hits chimura in the chest…

I think blowing a 3-0 lead in about 8 minutes was inexcusable. Had that not happened – Gaborik is not being killed for what was in fact a horrendous play. Let’s hope it was good experience and let’s hope Del Zotto was watching on Television or tape delay.

It was a moronic play, but so was McDonuts giveaway, and Stahl’s giveaway in game one.

It’s just the fact that he’s doing nothing productive for this team. He’s not scoring goals, he’s not helping the PP, in fact he’s been pathetic on the PP. He hasn’t done anything smart with the puck. He’s soft, he rarely plays defense, and now he screws us in what could be the game that was probably our only shot at helping us win this series.

This is not how a “superstar” is supposed to play. He’s been literally useless. Avery is the useless one, and even he is providing something for the team.

That being said, most of the confidence that I’ve had in this team is nearly gone, but I still believe they can pull off the upset, just based on the fact that this team has choked in the past.

Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to get back on top, and if last night wasn’t our rock bottom, then I’m scared to see what is.

Eddie 3 x’s I did. Haven’t been home much today, so missed it. In 1994 I wrote to Bill Clement because I thought he was Bias towards the Devils during playoffs. He left a message on the machine saying he didn’t think he was bias and he wished the Rangers well. And we won! Maybe I should write to Darren..

We won the President’s Trophy that year…Messier won the Hart…Leetch won the Norris and set the Ranger record with 80 assists that season (insane). The Cup was on everyone’s mind and for good reason…52 years and counting…

Whose teaching this team offense and how to work the power play, Torts, Sullivan, a combo, etc?

I’m not saying it will work, but just as Lundquist has a goalie coach, can’t they hire an offensive guru? It won’t count against the cap..haha

I think it was only a matter of time before the Ranger’s disgusting PP came back to haunt them.
That and the fact that Captain Drury and Dubinsky said they were on their heels and not ready to play in the 3rd….great, thanks captain. You’re a real inspiration for coming back to join your team for the playoffs.

NYR_FAN: “Kind of topic, but, I still think the 1992, game 4 vs the Pens is worst of all…
Watch the play Messier makes on the GWG in OT…
For those that want to relive history:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkBetCrJTZw
We won the President’s Trophy that year…Messier won the Hart…Leetch won the Norris and set the Ranger record with 80 assists that season (insane). The Cup was on everyone’s mind and for good reason…52 years and counting…”

NYR, it’s funny how we fans are still sore about that series almost 20 years later! :) It was a weird series…we lost Graves and the Pens lost Lemieux, but losing Graves hurt the Rangers more.

“….In the sixth game of the series, Halák stopped 53 shots to set a club record for a playoff game (in regulation-time),[1] leading the Canadiens to a 4-1 victory. Ultimately, the Canadiens overcame a 3-1 series deficit to win the series in seven games, marking one of the biggest upsets in NHL history.[2] The win was attributed largely to Halák’s play as he turned aside 131 of Washington’s 134 shots in games 5 through 7, frustrating the league’s top scoring team from the regular season.[3] “

He plays on a team that’s inconsistent at best in scoring, a defensive core with an average age of 15, and no backup for the playoff run. Without him, the Rangers are 12th in the Eastern Conference…if that. And in the playoffs, against one of the best scoring teams in the league. the Rangers giving up tons and tons of shots, his GAA is just north of 2. To me, that is elite. If he were on a better team he’d have 4 Vezinas right now.

It has been mentioned that he gives up too many rebounds. But Noyverth(sp) gives up just as much – they just trickle in front of the net, where there are 3 big Capital bodies and 0 Rangers bodies to play it. So those aren’t noticed as much as Hanks’, which almost inevitably find a Capital player because they are better at getting positioning than we are.

Getting rid of Hank would be disastrous. Give the Rangers another 1-2 years to develop, especially on D. Then all of the sudden his numbers would get better – not that there’s much room for improvement already.

Sometimes we do guest bloggers. Sometimes I just come on and tell you “I got nothing” or about a big meeting with Mr. Titleist. But there’s something here pretty much every day … except when they force on of those byfuglien furlough (unpaid get-the-bryzgalov-outta-here) leaves.

But we don’t shut down. And we’ll also do the countdown to opening night.

i feel that the rangers still win this series…call me foolish, blind, naive, moron….it matters not…i knew they would make the playoffs and i know they will win at least a round….given the way things are shaping up in the east…any 1 of the 8 could make the final…even TB

manny et al. i sent away for the audio tape of the game 3 ranger/islander playoff series…the JP Parise game….Loudest crowd i ever witnessed as they came back from 3-0 deficit after 2 to tie it in regualtion….I could burn other copes for anyone else too…

good point eddie, too bad the rangers are facing a rookie goalie and cant rattle him. Not withstanding how good the Caps are and how good thier goalie was during the regular season I cant believe the Rangers cant knock him off his game.

Orr – In regards to sports, every week is a week from hell. But, what I’m currently working on is learning to put things in perspective. There’s more important things in life, like my health, and my puppies’ health. Speaking of, my princess was crying a couple days ago for no reason. Mother and brother took me and her to the vet yesterday. She has a lump on her chest, biopsy Monday. Things have been starting to look positive for me, and now this. I can’t afford to lose her, she means everything to me. I have faith that she’ll be okay, please keep her in your prayers. She is the most beautiful girl in the world and the most perfect creature in the world. :)

Yeah, Jimbo. I had a two year old Puggle. He couldn’t piss or shyte, so I took him to the Vet the next day, and it turned out he had bladder stones, and he needed surgery because it was life threatening. So, they took the dog away before I had a chance to say my goodbyes, and said they would perform the surgery tomorrow. But, he died overnight. His bladder ruptured, and he pretty much poisoned himself to death, and had an extremely painful death. If it was so life threatening, I don’t get why they waited.

Wow, Orr – I must have missed reading about your poor dog. I’m sorry! Yeah, I can see where you would be justified in having hard feelings after something like that happens. Why *not* take care of the situation as soon as is possible?

if Edler is not suspended, then you know the league has favoritism for Vanc because they just gave several suspensions in several series, but they refused to give one to Torres, and now Edler should get one for his blatant elbow

That was a horrible series – that piece of carcillo Dave Schultz – I always wished he would get the “Deliverance” treatment someday after his attempt to kill Rolfe with his fists…what a friggin’ mismatch that was…

jimbo/olga – remember at the end of game that 73-74 game 7, the rangers were penalized for too many men late in the 3rd…down 1-0 or 2-0, i forget…and hatfield goes off….and yes, laughs like a loon….i have tears in my eyes…and that knucklehead is laughing…

Eddie, I felt exactly the same way…and the thing was, Hadfield had always been a “good guy”. But then he scored 50 goals that one season, and then he forgot how he had come up in the league – as somebody who liked to fight.

funny shark story…at the shark/ranger game this year….waiting at the entrance where the players arrive….girardi/cally ride in on a taxi…say hello, wish-em good luck…then Gianome and don maloney…same thing…bit longer chat with the old captain…then a shark player drives up going about 45 mph…kids rush in to get autographs….the porsche or the benz, forget which, nearly hits one kid….the driver…none other than danny heatly…we all had a laugh after that one…

Those certainly were some bad years – since I started being a Ranger fan when Emile was running things, I expected some competence to follow when he was replaced – but it got worse and worse after he was shown the door. At least Emile’s teams usually made the playoffs!

Emile had some pretty good teams, in retrospect. They never had enough talent or luck to win the Cup, since there was always at least one team better than they were, but they were respectable, and entertaining, and as I recall back then, they almost always played well at home!

i had a few beers at charlie O’s with don murdoch during the 1980 playoff series against filthy…the game where duguay had his hattie…people were yelling out spooooon,,,,,i felt bad for the guy…i always loved his shot ,,,,,felt he got a raw deal….

Yes, eddie – exactly! I remember the Gallo cartoon in the Daily News when Ratelle broke his ankle – it basically said that the Ranger’s Cup dreams were over when that injury took place, and it turned out to be right.

Sorry, Olga – yes, they were contenders – every year, as a young fan, I thought they just needed a player here, a player there, and they would challenge for the Cup – but it never happened. Not until 94, after all those years of suffering…

Fairbairn was the best player out of the 10 in my first pack of hockey cards…72/73 played 72 games, scored 30 goals, 33 assists to go along with only 10 minutes of penalties. Plus the card had a cute picture of a bulldog on it…I was a Ranger fan from then on.

They didn’t put hockey cards in the stores here until the late 70’s. I used to send away for sets from Western Canada somewhere. I even bought sets from the WHA. They were like 5 bucks or so for the 66 card set. I shoulda bought a hundred.

Yeah, you’re right about battleship – I coveted him for the Rangers due to his fighting ability…who was I thinking of..? Bert Marshall? – he was a pretty good fighter for his size, which would be a midget by today’s player standards!

Wow, Cape – good stuff! Well, at least now there are the Oilers and the Flames, not to mention Vancouver – and you had the Nordiques and the Jets for awhile there – but in the late 60’s it was only the Leafs or the Habs.

cape – i was in old maple leafs garden about 6 yrs ago over on church street…one of the goals was visible from the sidewalk if a curtain wasnt put up…i got to go in after talking the lacross team to let me in…that blew me away…also how vertical the seats were…

Only hockey cards up here until many years later. We used to put the cards in the spokes of our bikes. My sister took a shitload of them and put her initials in the corner of them, claiming them for herself. Years later I noticed that all these valuable cards were now worthless.

how is that penner trade looking. talk about a soft player. they only gave up 3 picks and people for a total dogger. he floats like it is game 10 of the regular season. man lucky the ducks signed getzlaf and perry over him. what was there gm so made about when the oilers signed him.. he should send the oilers a thank you note.

another player scouts and many of the pseudo fans love who really sucks and should give his paycheck back…

Well, maybe that’s not so bad, then – at least a fan can walk past the place and still see the building where all those games were played and where Cups were won….even if it has been “re-purposed” it is still standing…

The Montreal Forum was the home of the Canadiens hockey team from 1926 until 1996, and it has been called “the most storied building in hockey history”. After the Habs moved to the Molson/Bell Centre in ‘96, the Forum’s interior was converted into a mall with shops, restaurants and a “multiplex” movie theatre.

Wow! So they did demolish it after all – OK, that makes sense, then..I saw something on Hockey Night in Canada not too long ago where they had a section of seats from the Forum – maybe it is in the Bell Centre? The announcer said that this was all that was left of the Forum, so that’s why I assumed that it had been torn down.

OK, Cape – I sure would have liked to take in a game in each of the Original Six arenas, but I never got a chance to do it, and then one by one they all were demolished or turned into something else. The “Old Garden” here in NYC was torn down right after I became a Ranger fan, within a year or less, anyway – I never saw a hockey game there (except on TV) but I did go to the circus as a child in the Garden, so I was inside it once or more times!

After the Canadiens left the Forum, the building was used to film arena sequences for the Brian De Palma film Snake Eyes.[10] It was then completely gutted and converted into a downtown entertainment centre called the Pepsi Forum, consisting of an AMC multiplex theatre, shops and restaurants. Centre ice has been recreated in the centre of the complex complete with a small section of the grandstand, along with a statue of a fan leaning forward in delight, while original seats are used as benches throughout the complex. A statue of Maurice Richard can be found next to the grandstand. On the Saint Catherine Street entrance there is a Quebec Walk of Fame consisting of Richard and Celine Dion. Both were on hand for their bronze star’s respective unveiling. The Atwater street entrance has a large bronze Montreal Canadiens logo surrounded by 24 bronze Stanley Cup banners cemented into the sidewalk. Inscribed in French are the words “forever proud”. The entire building is themed after the Forum’s storied history with special emphasis on the Montreal Canadiens.

The building was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1997 because:

“it was arguably the country’s most famous sporting venue… it also serves as an icon for the role of hockey in Canada’s national culture… the Forum is the oldest of Canada’s large-scale arenas and has, throughout its history, been the country’s leading site for major indoor cultural, political and religious events.
—Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, June 1997

I’m sure they do, In Quebec, for certain. We got inundated with her and that Titanic (movie) theme song, which was played every 10 seconds on every broadcast outlet – kinda got repetitive after awhile!